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Governor Whitmer: Repeating the history of what happened in 1967

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to bar weapons from being taken into the state Capitol after anti-lockdown protesters showed up with firearms, she told NBC News in a wide-ranging interview.

Whitmer's comments came after gun-toting militia protesters joined a larger group demanding that she reopen parts of the state's economy in a demonstration last week. The protesters spilled inside the Capitol, where armed demonstrators confronted police officers and insisted on being allowed onto the House floor as lawmakers debated an extension of her emergency powers.

May 2, 1967: Two dozen armed African Americans entered the state Capitol at noon today and 10 made their way to the back of the Assembly Chamber before they were disarmed and marched away by the state police.

The Assembly was in session at the time and Speaker Pro Tem Carlos Bee ordered the men removed from the chamber.

Outside the chamber, the police took away the weapons. The men argued they could carry the weapons as long as they were not concealed.

Apparently the fact the weapons were not concealed was the reason the men were able to get as far as the Assembly Chamber before they were disarmed.

After the state police questioned the men, they returned the weapons to them because the intruders had broken no law.

Back then:

Now:

Different decade, same basic principle. Fight for your rights and stand up for what you believe in.

In 1966, it was legal to openly carry loaded firearms in California — a legacy of the Gold Rush. In Jackson, a Sierra foothills town that retained that era’s flavor, one state senator was often seen wearing a holstered pistol.

But a year later, the Legislature abolished open carry. It took a moment of racial dramatics at the state Capitol in Sacramento, where I was a reporter.